A Redeemed Outlook on the World

Shelley Lubben on the Porn Industry

In a comment on my blog Luke Gilkerson made me aware that the software accountability program Covenant Eyes has a blog called Breaking Free. I recently checked it out and from what I can see it is a solid resource in the fight against pornography. Breaking Free is a Christ-centered blog centered on providing resources for those seeking to pursue biblical purity.

In a couple of recent posts Shelley Lubben has provided a couple of guest posts dealing with the porn industry. Shelley Lubben is an ex-porn actress and is the founder of The Pink Cross Foundation. I have posted an excerpt from one of her two posts on Breaking Free below. The stats that she presents are overwhelmingly alarming. I would commend this sight with wisdom to anyone struggling with the issue of sexual sin.

I have been working with adult industry workers since 2002, when I began volunteering as a teacher and counselor at local rescue missions and prisons in the State of California. I have worked at Madera Rescue Mission, Bakersfield Rescue Mission, Central California Women’s Facility Prison, and Valley State Prison for Women and have traveled throughout the United States as a speaker and counselor on the negative effects of pornography at various churches, recovery programs and secular organizations. My team and I currently work with hundreds of people struggling with pornography addiction in the Pink Cross Foundation Help Forums.

In my daily work of assisting women and men recovering from the pornography industry as well as those struggling with pornography addiction and gathering research over a period of several years, I have learned significant facts to prove that indeed the California pornography industry is causing severe secondary negative effects on adult industry workers as well as the general public, which is involuntarily exposed to pornography, especially children, whose average age of first Internet exposure to pornography is eleven years old.

It is estimated that there are 4.2 million porn Web sites—12% of the total amount of sites—allowing access to 72 million worldwide visitors monthly.

One-quarter of the total daily search engine requests, or 68 million, are for pornographic material, where 40 million Americans are regular visitors.

The United States adult film industry produces 4,000–11,000 films a year and earns an estimated $9–$13 billion in gross revenues annually.

An estimated 200 production companies employ 1,200–1,500 performers. Performers typically earn $400–$1,000 per shoot and are not compensated based on distribution or sales.

Lobbyist Bill Lyon told 60 Minutes that the porn industry employs 12,000 people in California and pays the state $36 million in taxes per year. When 60 Minutes first spoke to Lyon, he was running the free speech coalition, a trade organization that represents 900 companies in the porn business.